Clarity – Seeing the Bigger Picture For Your Business

Big Picture Thinking

In your business, just as in your everyday life, it’s important to set some kind of clear intentions or parameters for you to achieve, and perhaps set them for the people that you are responsible for. What is very clear is to make clear what you expect from employees in both their work production and behavior on the job but most especially, their work ethic.

Okay, isn’t this business 101? Who wouldn’t know this? Even a well-seasoned entrepreneur or established business can experience some disruptive behavior from employees ,that they could never have anticipated. Well, time changes and so do the thought processes of many people in the world.

Generational Gaps

Generational Gaps

No matter what generational perspective you may have, people can make assumptions about what they expect in other people’s behavior and their work ethic. You simply expect them to know how to behave themselves in a work environment, whether it’s to get a certain amount of production done in a day or week or how they conduct themselves with co-workers or management. As can often be the case, you may find yourself expending a lot of energy monitoring your employees, due to disruptive behavior, distracting yourself from your own personal productive goals. Or you may feel that you are micro managing or nit picking about the certain ways that your employees are conducting business.

Refresh Your Thinking

You may find that the old fashioned way of managing your business and your employees doesn’t seem to work within the time honored parameters that you or your predecessors have set. It may help to rethink what it is that you really would like to see happening with your business and the type of employees that you would like to have alongside you to achieve your goals and a more harmonious work environment.

Questions

Questions, Questions

Don’t bring those old standard interview questions out of mothballs from the last fifty years. Whether recruiting or finding a way to deal with the current employees, times are so different and so are the people who may have what you’re looking for. You’ll have to do a lot of introspection about the kind of employees that you want to surround yourself with and retain. Taking more time to learn about who they are can make a difference in the kind of atmosphere that you are seeking.

Social Media

Social Media

It’s here to stay and it’s a great tool to use to recruit employees. You’ll definitely reach a lot of people when sending a notice out about a new position but it’s a good opportunity to gather information about the person you may want on your team. Those profiles that people post on their social media pages can really give you a good perspective on who that person is.

And More Questions

With your current team members, it’s a good strategy to find out what excites or drives them about the business, even life, in order to retain them. What makes them “tick.” Of course an employee’s or potential employee’s skills play a vital role in your decision to give a raise or hire them, but take the extra time to ask some pertinent questions. Discuss their role. Give clear details of what it entails, what you expect of them. It’s not enough to just hand over a sheet of paper with a job description on it. The information that you need to build the team that you desire depends on listening carefully to each answer.

On-Boarding

On Boarding

This step can be lacking in some businesses but it’s very important in making sure that a new team member is familiar with what is expected of them. It definitely gives a new employee the chance to “learn the ropes” from a coworker, without having to scramble to learn on their own. It goes a long way to making the employee feel comfortable with the team.

Progress

Frequently monitoring an employee’s progress is not micro managing or nit picking. If done in a manner that shows support and a desire for the person to succeed, it won’t be taken negatively. This also helps to quickly address any concerns that come up that you may feel are counter to what you would like to see in the workplace. Quickly addressing things that you determine as problems, could potentially be rectified before they get out of hand.

From the Author:

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Free E-file Opened by the IRS Ahead of 2015 Tax Season

Tax Season Starts

Although the tax filing season doesn’t normally kick off until the end of January, approximately 100 million tax payers will be able to file their federal tax returns early this year. This is due to the IRS opening their e-file service ahead of the 2015 season, which allows tax payers to file their returns electronically for free.

Eligibility

Individuals and families who earned an adjusted gross income of $58,000 or less in 2014 are eligible to file their returns early by using the IRS’s free e-file system. The Free File Fillable Forms, which are simply an electronic version of the IRS’s paper forms, assist taxpayers with math but do not provide step-by-step instructions. In addition, state tax return preparation cannot be performed using this option.

Free File Alliance

Start Date of the Program

The 2014 Free File program began on January 17, 2015, by the IRS and the Free File Alliance, a partnership consisting of 14 tax software businesses that associate with the IRS.

Major Savings Incurred by Using Free E-file Services

Tim Hugo, Executive Director of the Free File Alliance, has noted that their complimentary online commercial tax preparation software programs have saved American taxpayers $1.2 billion since the program’s inception in 2003.

IRS Find a Free File

How to Find a Free File Program

The IRS supplies a list of the free tax preparation software from the Free File Alliance member companies. Therefore, taxpayers can select the software and company that is most applicable to their tax situation. The IRS has also provided a “Help Me Find Free File Software” tool that helps taxpayers find the best software for their needs.

How to E-file the Return

Once a tax software provider has been selected, the taxpayer is taken directly to the software company’s website. At that point, the taxpayer can complete his or her federal tax return and e-file the return for free. In addition, a convenient tool called Get Transcript allows taxpayers to download their tax returns from the prior year directly from the IRS. The tax software service is provided in a choice of either English or Spanish.

Tax Return

Tax Return Submission Date

Although the free e-file software programs are open ahead of the 2015 tax season, the completed e-filed returns are actually held by the Free File software businesses until January 20. This is the date when the IRS will start to accept tax returns.

e-filing tax systems

Benefits of E-filing Systems

There are significant benefits to using the free e-filing systems, including that they allow taxpayers to file more quickly than the traditional paper method. John Koskinen, the new IRS Commissioner, has stated that there is absolutely no advantage to filing by paper. In addition, once the tax return has been filed through an e-filing system, the IRS receives the return immediately and it can be processed accordingly.

IRS Website Provides Taxpayers With Information

The IRS website (www.irs.gov) is an excellent source of information for taxpayers seeking assistance in preparing their returns. The site includes YouTube videos with tax tips as well as many additional ways of obtaining information. In addition, the site contains services such as a “Where’s My Refund?” section where taxpayers can determine the status of their refunds.

Tax Refund

How to Receive an Updated Status of a Refund

The status of refunds section of the IRS website provides personalized information regarding refunds upon request. Taxpayers can review the status of their submitted e-file return within just 24 hours after the return has been accepted by the IRS. The refund, if applicable, is updated on the IRS website once per day.

Best Method to Receive a Refund

According to the IRS, the quickest method for individuals and families to receive their refund is to combine an e-file submission with a direct deposit into their bank account. When the IRS starts to process tax returns, the agency anticipates providing over 90 percent of the refunds within 21 days.

Hopefully, this article got you thinking about how to advise clients properly on the topic of simplifying their tax filing. Aside from this, if you’re not already doing electronic tax filing on their behalf, you should. If you efile 1099 and other tax forms, your clients should receive refunds faster.

On top of this, I suggest you follow my lead if you’re printing and mailing tax forms still. I use eFile4Biz.com to file 1099 online, and focus on clients, instead of mailing paper forms. This service also integrates with the major accounting brands, on top of printing and delivering the tax forms for me. Their 1-minute video below will explain the details.